On Nov. 15, the station will host an event for kids and families from noon to 6 p.m. celebrating 100 years since the first sale of a ticket at what was then the soon-to-fully-open Ogden Union Station.

Hope Eggett, museum administrator for the Museums at Union Station, told the Standard-Examiner on Monday that the commemoration is aimed at teaching children about the station’s prior importance.

“On Nov. 15, 1924, the building was mostly completed,” she said. “They were still moving furniture in, but they were ready to kind of soft open to the public. We’re celebrating that event with this event we’re calling ‘Get Your Ticket.’ It was the first day train tickets were sold inside our building and we’re hoping to kind of reach out to children and have them engage with that history in a way that they don’t normally get to.

“We’re going to have opportunities for people to learn what train schedules were like, where trains could go from Ogden, and have the opportunity to make their own train ticket to get punched and go on a little ride on a miniature train around the station.”

She said for such a monumental first in the station’s history, the destination wasn’t quite so distant.

“That first railroad ticket was sold just to the Roy station in Davis County — a very close ride over on the Union Pacific system,” she said. “It was sold to our Weber County treasurer at the time. His name was David Evans. It was very much a celebration. They had hundreds of people in the building. I think he waited in line specifically to be the first person. He noted in the newspaper article 100 years ago he’s keeping the ticket as a souvenir.”

Next Friday’s event will include free access to all of the museums and a booth to write “Letters to the Future,” a selection of which will be included in the new Union Station time capsule that is set to be sealed into the building’s cornerstone later this month to be opened in 2124. The station’s centennial exhibit — “The Heart of Ogden” — also will be on display during the “Get Your Ticket” event.

“This building has really been a centerpiece of the community for a long time,” Eggett said. “Having this day to celebrate the soft opening of the station — the first time that people got to lay eyes on this building — is really exciting and I’m hoping that families and our community members can enjoy it just as much as we do every day.”

The official centennial celebration events for Union Station are slated for Nov. 22-23.